Performance Evaluation | 2019
A new spider (Arachnida: Araneae) from the Middle Eocene Messel Maar, Germany
Abstract
The Fossil-Lagerstätte of Grube Messel, Germany, has produced some of the most spectacular fossils of the Paleogene (Schaal & Ziegler, 1992; Gruber & Micklich, 2007; Selden & Nudds, 2012; Schaal et al., 2018). However, few arachnids have been discovered or described from this World Heritage Site. An araneid spider was reported by Wunderlich (1986). Wedmann (2018) reported that 160 spider specimens were known from Messel although, sadly, few are well preserved. She figured the araneid mentioned by Wunderlich (1986) and a nicely preserved hersiliid (Wedmann, 2018: figs 7.8–7.9, respectively). Wedmann (2018) mentioned six opilionids yet to be described, and figured one (Wedmann, 2018: fig. 7.10). Here, we report a new, well preserved spider, Lutetiana neli gen. et sp. nov., the first to be formally described from the locality, which is placed in the Marronoidea (the Marronoid Clade of Wheeler et al., 2017), and possibly in the family Cybaeidae. Apart from the abundance of fossil spiders described from Cenozoic ambers of Germany and the Baltic region, fossil spiders are also known from a number of sedimentary deposits in southern Germany (see Lutz et al. (2000) for helpful descriptions of maar lake Fossil-Lagerstätte). The Upper Oligocene lake deposits of Rott have produced members of the families Araneidae, Linyphiidae, Agelenidae and Thomisidae (von Heyden, 1859; Bertkau, 1878). The Upper Oligocene maar lake deposits of Enspel (Wedmann et al., 2010; Wuttke et al., 2010) have yielded a number of fossil spiders which have yet to be described. The Miocene brown coal deposits of Linz am Rhein have produced numerous specimens of spiders originally (and probably erroneously) referred to Argyroneta (Heyden, 1859), and the Miocene brown coals of Öhningen, on the SwissGerman border, have yielded numerous spiders which were referred to Theridiidae, Araneidae, Argyroneta, Thomisidae and Gnaphosidae (Heer, 1865; Dunlop et al., 2019). All of the specimens from these deposits require description or redescription. The Miocene volcanic lake of Randecker Maar in the Swabian Alb has produced fossils of Lycosidae, Thomisidae and Salticidae (Schawaller & Ono, 1979; Wunderlich, 1986). The Pliocene lake of Willershausen, produced by solution of evaporites and subsequent collapse, has produced some remarkably preserved arthropod fossils (Briggs et al., 1998), including numerous spider families: Dysderidae, Lycosidae, Thomisidae and Salticidae (Straus, 1967; Schawaller, 1982). All of these localities are much younger than Messel.